Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

All,
Thanks in advance for your time and any help.

Was out in more than 24" of snow yesterday.  Broke a shear pin, no problem, had most of the job done, thank God, when something got sucked up by the auger.  After that, the auger, shaft, and impeller will not turn.

Never fails.  Before the storm I always clear the sidewalk of junk and potential hazards.  Just too much wind the other day though.

She still runs and drives - forward and reverse is fine. 

Checked the shear pins, removed them, and re-installed, and they were fine.  Still, there is no way to spin the auger or the impeller.

I popped off the cover for the belts - one seems fine but the, larger, with the tensioner, seems loose.  It is still on and around the pulley, however, when the handle is engaged, it is still a bit loose for my liking.

Has anyone a suspicion or place to start?  I would really hate to take it down before determining just belts?

Has anyone a procedure for troubleshooting?

FWIW - it's a Tecumseh.

It sounds like you have a problem either with the impeller or your gear box.

Generally when something happens in the gearbox the impeller shaft will turn, but the augers won't.

You might have to break down and start taking it apart to find the problem.

Maybe you got unlucky and bent one of the shafts severely, or one of the gears in the gearbox shattered and they are now jamming up.

Ariens comes apart pretty easy provided you can get the big pulley off the back of the impeller shaft.

Even if you can not get the pulley off, removing the bushings on the sides of the augers might give you enough wiggle room to find out whats jamming the impeller.

Owners Manual: http://apache.ariens.com/manuals/024028F.pdf
Parts Manual: http://apache.ariens.com/manuals/PM-24-93.pdf
Service Manual: http://apache.ariens.com/manuals/00040600.pdf

Most likely you have it lodged between the impeller housing and the impeller.Check your clearance from front to back at all impeller blades to see if anything is jammed in there.

Sounds like something might be jammed behind the impeller plate. Unless you can access the space between the impeller plate  and the impeller housing,  It might be time to separate the bucket from the wheel drive to see if you can pull the big pulley off of the impeller shaft to facilitate dis-assembly of the impeller shaft/auger assembly.  

That's going to take a bit of work.  The augers bearings have to be removed to take out the augers, the shear pins must also be removed if you want to take the augers off of the gear drive.    Once they're out of the way, any support(s) for the gear box have to be disconnected then pull the impeller shaft/gearbox assembly forward to remove it from the impeller housing.   Depending on how tight the impeller shaft pulley is, you might need to drift the impeller shaft out of the pulley. 

If you choose to do the above dis-assembly, pay close attention to how things come apart.  You don't want to install your augers opposite or backward.  Make identification marks on the ends of the augers that will match marks on the gearbox to ensure you have the correct auger for the correct side. 

Before going through the above, I think I'd try a bit more hammering/leveraging with the 2x2.  You might get lucky and wiggle it out.

When you moved to impeller, did you notice if the augers turned a bit?

I am thinking if it is something stuck around the impeller he might get lucky just removing the end cap bushings on the augers.

If you want to attempt that all you need to do is remove the big 3/4" bolt and the (3) 7/16" nuts on the round piece on each side.
Then use a flat screwdriver to pry the bracket out.

That should give him just enough up/down, side/side, back/forth play to wiggle whatever it is out of there.

Shryp wrote:
Agreed.

No Luck, nothing behind the impeller.

Could there be something jammed in the gear case? Causing the impeller, worm, and auger shaft to all not turn?

What would be your next move?

james_o wrote:
I have read a couple reports of roll pins falling out or breaking inside the gear gase.  If it fell out I could see it jamming, but if something else was stuck I would think you would have some wiggle in it.

At this point I guess you have to start taking everything apart and checking everything until something fails to turn.

To check the gearbox you have to get the pulley off the impeller and remove the whole assembly from the housing.

One other thing to check would be the bearing behind the impeller.


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You might be able to remove the oil fill plug and look inside with a flashlight.